Hawaii On My Mind

Now why would I be thinking about Hawaii today? I don’t have a trip planned (except to Ireland in less that a month) and I wasn’t recently there (except that my wife was). Perhaps it’s because after several gorgeous days with temperatures in the 70s, startlingly blue skies and gentle breezes, today we have snow. In New Mexico, we don’t have spring weather. Rather winter and summer fight it out until summer finally wins.

My thoughts go back to the trips I made to Honolulu as the expert witness for the U. S. Justice Department in the federal court case of United States v. Center Art Gallery–Hawaii in 1990. On the first trip I spent a week in the “war room” at the US Attorney’s office examining artworks attributed to Salvador Dali–hundreds of them. When I was finished, I flew over to “The Big Island” for a week of snorkeling at Kealakakua Bay, exploring the island and meeting interesting people.

The second visit I testified in the trial and set a record for the time spent in cross-examination in federal court. On that trip, I had planned to have a week of R & R to recover, but it was all spent in the witness chair and I didn’t get to experience the delights of Kauai. A lot about that trial will be revealed in my currently-being-written book Persistence of Enigma: The Unbelievable Salvador Dali Market.

Another tale that will be told there is the rest of the story about the Center Art Gallery Trial–the sale at auction of over 1,200 “Dali” prints! When the New York Times called for a quote about that bizarre event, I said, “This makes the Federal Government an accessory to future art fraud, but I’m delighted because it gives me guaranteed job security.”

I’d be happy to go back to Hawaii, especially because my brother and sister-in-law live in Kauai. It’s not a place I’d chose to live, however. My good buddy C. H. Boyd is in the process of moving to Maui as I write. I’d go to see him too.

OK, so I’ll stop thinking about Hawaii and turn my thought to the upcoming pleasures of Ireland.